Favorite Holiday Album

Pink Saturday December 18, 2010

This is my favorite Christmas album.

It's mostly standards, with a touch of Latin beat!

I've been listening to it a lot this season.  It's on regular rotation in my shop along with 40 Years, A Charlie Brown Christmas.

 

This song reminds me of the wonder I felt the first Christmases after my children were born.  

  I have been struck by how much the bass player on this track reminds me of my husband playing.  B has a distinct sound.  So, for this blog I went to the liner notes to see who it was.  I had to laugh when I saw the credits!  It happens to be a programed, synthesized bass part.  That might be insulting, that my DH sounds like a synthesized bass part.  Except the arranger & programmer on this track turns out to be an old friend of ours! We actually all lived together briefly in a drafty Boston apartment.   The guys went to music school together.  They played in bands together and very much appreciated each other's musicality.

It's possible I knew of the connection, but I had completely forgotten until just now when I looked.

What fun!

Another pretty tune on the CD.
This one in Spanish

If you wander over to Bev's blog, How Sweet The Sound, you can see and hear Pink Saturday participants' favorite holiday music.

Credits:  The Album:

Christmas Through Your Eyes.  Gloria Estefan.  Produced by Phil Ramone 1993.
Christmas Through Your Eyes, words & music by G. Estefan & Diane Warren 1990.
Arbolito de Navidad, words & music by Jose Barros 1966.

Snow!

I walked out to my car this morning to find the windshield iced over and small snow-like dots on the hood.  I'm not sure it really counts, but it's sort of the first snow of the season.

The color attracts customers, I hope.

This chair is next to my shop sign.

I think I need to invest in marine paint if it's to survive the winter!

 Galvanized tub
with a couple inches of ice,

also next to shop sign at the road.

Frosty grass

This looks more like mornings in my LA valley suburb as a kid.
Hence, I didn't grow up with white Christmases.


 Bing Crosby, Rosemary Clooney, Danny Kaye, Vera-Ellen

Have a great day, snow or not!

Check back tomorrow for Pink Saturday's Holiday Music picks!

A Very Vintage Christmas Package Arrives!

I participated in Cristina's

She used this beautiful paper . . . 

. . . to make a pouch to hold all the treasures!

 

Some of the papers were loose, 

like this great wrapping paper.

I'm pretty sure my grandma had this paper when I was a kid!

Some were packaged,

 

like this,

and this by Hope,

my Silver Bella '09 "big sis,"

and this by Cristina's wonderful mama, Catherine,

who most certainly had a hand in getting these to us!

I recognized my friends' packets, but I haven't opened any of the others yet. To all the participants, thank you from the bottom of my heart for your creativity and generosity in sharing such lovely pieces.  I can't wait to use these! 

I'm afraid I forgot to include my cards with my contribution, so to see the items I sent, click here. 

My Favorite Pinks and a Giveaway

Today's Pink Saturday request is to share a favorite holiday movie.  When you drop on over to How Sweet the Sound you'll see lots of wonderful holiday films.  My Christmas movie favs are at the bottom of this post.

Here are some of my favorite pinks. 

 

Haviland Limoges china, 

even if it is chipped!

The bridal bouquet from my friend's wedding.

 

Glinda the Good

& all things Oz.

Vintage clothing

Making displays
Shelley tea cups, buttons, millinery flowers, linens.

Books my grandma gave me.

I could have an Oz picture here too.

My family has two favorite Christmas films:  White Christmas and Holiday Inn.  We've watched them every year since the kids were little! Holiday Inn is actually the first movie to showcase the song "White Christmas."  It stars Bing Crosby & Fred Astaire and has an Irving Berlin song for every holiday.  "White Christmas" was so successful as a song, they decided to build a whole movie around it.  If you watch both films, you'll notice they used the same set! (taking off my reference librarian hat now)  My family likes Holiday Inn best, but I'm both a Rosemary Clooney fan & a romantic sap, so White Christmas always gets my vote!

                                   The song "Snow" in 4-part harmony.

 I also love a little movie (made for televison in 1997) called The Christmas List.  It stars Mimi Rogers and tells the tale of a department store perfume counter saleswoman who makes a list, drops it in Santa's bucket and then finds her wishes coming true in unexpected ways.  I'm sad it's not on ABC Family this year.

This holiday season I am also celebrating my 100th post.  Leave a comment by December 24th to be entered in the drawing.  click here for details of the giveaway.

Celebrating!

This is my 100th post and 1st giveaway!

photo credit Cape Cod Rambling Rose

Last weekend was my shop open house.  What made it so delightful were my friends, who came out in force!  One friend is someone I knew in California when my kids were little.  She's here for a temporary job and I love it that she took her lunch hour to come visit the shop.

Another friend brought her children and they were an additional delight!  Her daughter tried on a whole bunch of my vintage hats.  Her 5 year old son did also.  Then my friend and I had to join in the fun! 

  We all looked mahvalous.  

photo credit Cape Cod Rambling Rose

The kids each picked out a vintage ornament for their tree.  Yessss -- handing off the vintage tradition to the next generation.  

photo credit Cape Cod Rambling Rose

 

Louise, who is so busy with 4 kids, her husband's shop and her creative endeavors, showed up to ooh and ah!  Even tho there are lots of breakables in the shop, I really enjoy kids coming in -- well behaved & interesting kids anyway.  So I was glad Louise brought her 2 youngest.  They are sweeties!  I have used some of her beautiful photos for this post.  She is documenting Cape Cod this holiday, drop over and see her blog Cape Cod Rambling Rose. 

New friends also visited.  A couple with an antique shop up the road who have welcomed me into the 6A community of antique shops came by on Sunday.  Their daughters visited on Saturday.  One daughter, Lee is an amazing photographer.  Click here to see her website.  

 

photo credit Lee Sutton Photography

She's purchased some things from my shop for props and we have a mutual admiration society.  She loves my shop, I love her photos!  

 

 

photo credit Cape Cod Rambling Rose

Two women who had never been in the shop before came in.  We hit it off right away.  I love making new friends, so I hope I get to see these ladies again.  Maybe they like to go out to lunch?   

 

So to celebrate both 100 and friendship, I am having a giveaway.  I will pick a comment and send this little basket & other treasures from my studio & shop.  Leave a comment before December 24th, telling me what you celebrate and treasure in your life! 

Holiday Decor

As I was getting ready for my shop open house, I looked around to see what I could use to decorate.  Most everyone has things especially for the holidays -- either purchased or handed down.   But what if you don't?  I came up with some fun "everyday" items to re-purpose for holiday displays.

I also came up with different ways to use vintage decorations.  With the shop, my purpose is sales, but I thought the ideas could be used in a person's home as well.

Find books with  red or green covers.

Add decorative ribbon in a coordinating design.
Millinery flowers or greenery would also be nice.

A plaid umbrella, plaid hatbox & round hatbox with red top.

I tied a ribbon around the plaid hatbox and opened the umbrella.  

Instant holiday colors.

Whiting & Davis Mesh Evening Bags.

Think of your pretty bags, the ones you never use, what with the kids and the economy.  If your bags are not as glittery as these, tie a pretty bow around one.

Stemware with small glass ornaments.

I got these glasses at auction.

They were part of a box lot.  Most of the matched sets have sold and I have these left. Usually they look like orphans, but with red ornaments they look pretty good.  Adding red shred and a pretty ribbon would jazz them up further!

An alternative to hanging ornaments on a tree.
 The look so pretty against the big window!

The shop doesn't have space for a large tree and I wanted to display all these wonderful vintage ornaments.  I strung a garland made of wire between a couple cup hooks and viola!  These ornaments are lightweight, if you have heavier ones just make sure you use wire that will support them.

 

Vintage ornaments on a silver tray. 

These remind me of my grandma, my shop inspiration.

Lightbulb Parfait.

These came in another box lot of Christmas pretties.

Added to orphan stemware, they look good enough to eat!

However you decorate this season, I hope you have fun and use things that really mean something to you.

2 Little Shops, 2 Much Fun!

My friend and neighbor Amy Mason has a wonderful shop across the street from me.  Sometimes it's just knowing she's over there, open, that gets me to open my shop when I might really rather be going out to lunch and reading a book!

Tomorrow we are having open houses at our shops.  She designed a great e-card, the gist of which you can see here.

My card

Designed by Amy at Stony Brook Design

(the back has all the pertinent info)

Amy's business card
She designs the cutest greeting cards too.
I love visiting her shop, it's bright, cheery and full of color.
Plus she does killer displays!

Adding a bit of sparkle to the blues.

A couple hours away from Pink Saturday!

Holiday gift tags

I couldn't resist the white embossing powder, it's called "winter wonderland" and has a little bit of sparkle to it!